Investigation of energy efficiency of European Union countries with two-stage network data envelopment analysis

Climate changes, drought, population growth and increasing energy requirement in the world turn energy into a power factor for countries. In the literature, it was seen that most of the energy efficiency assessment studies were carried out in a specific area for energy resources or energy type. However, there are few studies examining the energy performance or efficiency of European Union countries. From this viewpoint, it is expected that this study will make a significant contribution to the literature by examining the activities of the European Union member and candidate countries. This study includes also the energy policies of the European Union countries, their studies and targets. The main processes of the model have been determined within the framework of energy-economy-environment factors in order to evaluate all aspects of energy studies carried out in European Union countries. Examining the ineffectiveness reasons of the human, environment, economy and production dimensions that make up the model structure, the effects of the policies and studies applied at the point of efficient use of resources are tried to be determined. In this study, the Two-Stage Network Data Envelopment Analysis technique, which has been developed in recent years and encountered with few examples in the application phase, is used in order to evaluate the model structure with all its dimensions. With this method, the activities of the main processes and sub-dimensions of 33 European Union countries determined in the model were evaluated separately, and it is determined whether the same countries are actually effective and the processes that affect the activities.